This invention is concerned with auxiliary shear equipment. More particularly, this application is concerned with front feed equipment for facilitating the feeding of sheet metal into the front of the shear at various angles for shearing action thereon.
Recently, automatic equipment has been provided to feed the sheet metal into the shear; however, this automatic equipment lacks versatility, in that it does not provide for manipulation of the sheet metal to obtain angular cuts as may be desired. For example, if it is desired to cut off corners, or cut the sheet metal at angles, the operator of the shear presently has to physically manually shift the sheet metal. This usually requires calling for assistance of another operator. Besides being wasteful of manpower, it also creates unsafe conditions; i.e., having more than one operator at a time utilizing the shear equipment.
Prior art conveyor systems include, among others:
R. F. Holm, U.S. Pat. No. 2,566,417 issued on Sept. 4, 1951;
D. E. Dolle, U.S. Pat. No. 2,848,095 issued on Aug. 19, 1958;
W. F. Billinger, U.S. Pat. No. 3,044,216 issued on July 17, 1962;
H. H. McDougal, U.S. Pat. No. 3,247,949 issued on Apr. 26, 1966;
J. E. R Webb, U.S. Pat. No. 4,036,345 issued on July 19, 1977; and
D. J. Jarman, U.S. Pat. No. 4,068,753 issued on Jan. 17, 1978.
The present improved shear front feed system has the capability of automatically forcing the sheet metal towards a squaring arm to automatically square up and true the sheet metal being operated upon by the shears.
In the past, the operator of the shear had to take extra precautions to be sure that the sheet metal was abutting the squaring arm of the shear. Under the pressure of production oftentimes cuts were made which were not square or not at the proper angle because of failure of the operator to abut the sheet metal against the squaring arm.
The present invention has the following objects:
To provide improvements over the presently available front feed systems for shears;
To provide front feed systems that automatically square the sheet metal on the system with relation to the shear blade;
To provide means for automatically squaring the sheet metal, while at the same time enabling override of the automatic squaring feature;
To provide removable means for automatically squaring the sheet metal on the front feed system;
To provide fixed means for automatically squaring the sheet metal on the front feed system relative to the blade;
To provide means for enabling the facile manipulation of sheet material proximate the shear to enable shearing of the material at any desired angle;
To provide means to deliver sheet material in a selected orientation to the shear; and
To provide such apparatus in forms which are easy to manipulate and control.